Explores how political ecologies can help us to better understand and confront the emergence of contemporary authoritarian populism, based on a number of events convened under the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI).

February 7, 2019

Reflections on Authoritarian Populism: Democracy, Technology and Ecological Destruction

By Alexander Dunlap. Using anarchist critique to unearth the ‘roots’ of authoritarian populism can offer a productive gateway for understanding the origins and continuation of socio-ecological and economic crises.
January 24, 2019

Should political ecology be populist?

Political ecology should take populism seriously, not only because of its authoritarian or regressive manifestations, but also for its transformative potential.
January 10, 2019

Headless populism and the political ecology of alienation

By Patrick Huff. Populism of the kind displayed by the Yellow Vests is a revolt against social and ecological alienation and an affirmation of collective popular power.
December 13, 2018

Environmental populisms – alongside and beyond (state) authority

By Kai Bosworth. Rather than (only) critiquing and dismissing existing uses of ‘the people’ as insufficient, political ecology could contribute to a new international populism capable of upholding climate justice.
November 29, 2018

Authoritarianism, populism and political ecology

By Amber Huff and Levi Van Sant. Based on a number of events convened under the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative, we introduce a series of interventions that explore how political ecologies can help us to better understand and confront the emergence of contemporary authoritarian populism.
October 25, 2017

Confronting authoritarian populism: challenges for agrarian studies

by Ian Scoones Four points for scholarly research in rural contexts, in order to better understand the political reconfigurations and the socio-cultural dynamics linked to new forms of authoritarian populism Last week I was in Russia at the fascinating fifth BRICS Initiative in Critical Agrarian Studies conference. Throughout the event we heard about the emergence of particular styles of authoritarian populist regimes, including in the BRICS countries, but elsewhere too. Based on my remarks at the final plenary, I want to ask what the challenges are for agrarian studies in confronting […]